


Lights On Dark Waters

by Rubynye



Category: Star Trek XI
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-23
Updated: 2010-07-23
Packaged: 2017-10-10 18:29:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/pseuds/Rubynye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gaila tells four people about Anishe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lights On Dark Waters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [igrockspock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/igrockspock/gifts).



> Written for the [](http://community.livejournal.com/where_no_woman/profile)[**where_no_woman**](http://community.livejournal.com/where_no_woman/) [drabblefest](http://community.livejournal.com/where_no_woman/137707.html) and dedicated to [](http://igrockspock.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://igrockspock.livejournal.com/)**igrockspock**.

  
Title: Lights On Dark Waters  
Fandom: Star Trek XI  
Rating: PG  
Pairing: Gaila/Hikaru Sulu; Uhura and Pike also mentioned.  
Summary: Gaila tells four people about Anishe.  
Content Advisory: Het. OCs discussed.  
All Thanks To: [](http://ennyousai.livejournal.com/profile)[**ennyousai**](http://ennyousai.livejournal.com/) and [](http://merisunshine36.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://merisunshine36.livejournal.com/)**merisunshine36** for beta reading. *blows grateful kisses*

Gaila tells four people about Anishe.

She tells Lieutenant Ndebe, the intake counselor with the kindest eyes, because she's feeling healthy and strong after ten restful days of good Federation food and medical treatments, and Lt. Ndebe's eyes remind Gaila of her dreams of her mother. Lt. Ndebe sets down her padd and folds her hands beside Gaila's, nods and listens as if she truly cares, and afterwards thanks Gaila for trusting her enough to tell her.

She tells Captain Chris Pike the fullest summary of why she ran, which includes Anishe's warning to her. He understands, then, what she ran from, and what she's looking for in the Federation, enough for him to convince her in turn that Starfleet would actually consider accepting a former slave with no family or Federation connections.

She tells Nyota, when she finally understands her roommate's delicately worded questions about if there's anyone she might have left behind. They're lying in their beds when Gaila looks up into the darkness and says, "I had a friend, Anishe. She had long black hair like you do, and she acted wild and free despite the way the Front Office liked to make sure we never forgot they owned us. She used to dance with her arms thrown out, spinning and swinging her hair, claiming a big spiral of space instead of trying to make herself look delicate, look smaller..." She tells Nyota everything she can remember about Anishe, watching the lights from outside moving across the ceiling, listening to Nyota's even breathing. When Gaila falls silent Nyota gets up and lies down warmly beside her, their heads on one pillow, and that's how they finally fall asleep.

And she tells Hikaru. When he first tells Gaila about the fugitive Orion girl he and his father tried to smuggle to freedom, she wonders if he's trying to save her in Amaia's place and responds, "I'm not her." But she wakes up in the morning murmuring to herself about Anishe, and spends the day considering how to tell Hikaru that maybe she heard what he meant to say after all.

Days pass, and she doesn't say anything, and neither does he, until a flickering electroflyer kiosk catches her eye and she notices a festival coming up that she read about in her comparative cultures text, so she comms Hikaru with the info. He replies with '???'. She responds with '!!!' and detours into the City before she goes to see him.

When Hikaru opens his door Gaila hands him a shopping bag and kisses him; he kisses her back distractedly, peers into the bag at the paper lantern and its little boat, and looks up with his eyebrows arched high. "I haven't celebrated Obon in a few years," he says dubiously.

"These are mine," she tells him. "For Anishe."

She sees him think she misremembered Amaia's name, sees him understand as his eyebrows flicker higher and then soften. "Anishe?" he asks, and as she steps into his room, sets her things down, undresses and changes and keeps her hands busy, Gaila tells him. More than she told Captain Pike, less than she told Nyota, a few things she hadn't remembered or has found better words for. The tilt of Anishe's wide smile, the arch of her wrist as she ground pigment, the urgent squeeze of her fingers as she pressed her gold scarf into Gaila's hand before her new owners took her by the arms and pushed their restraining bolt onto her neck. Gaila tells what she can, until Sol settles over the ocean and Hikaru's room fills with soft golden light, until he steps behind her and rests one hand in the middle of her back.

"Do you think," he asks, his voice softer than the air whispering through the vents, softer than the reddening sunlight, "I could join you with a lantern for Amaia?"

Gaila nods then, and smiles.

She smiles again eight evenings later when Hikaru meets her at her dorm, his lantern in his hand. He lifts it to show her the sheet beneath; the paper is translucently white, meticulously handwritten in neat vertical rows. Gaila looks at it for a little while, absorbing its beauty though she can't read the characters, and when she looks up to his ink-dark eyes Hikaru murmurs, "It's the story of MuLan. I never finished telling her."

Something painfully sweet flares in Gaila's chest like a light in the darkness. "That's perfect," she tells him, and his smile is so small and sad she kisses it to make it brighten. He looks at her from the corners of his eyes as they start walking, but she gets that brightened smile.

On the monorail they sit together quietly, arms and hips aligned. Gaila rests her head on Hikaru's firm shoulder as she regards at her lantern, red and glossy black and gold, and wonders if she should have written something for Anishe, a final letter, but there's no time now. Besides, Anishe would have understood anyway; Gaila can almost see her grin, bright enough to show her chipped tooth.

At their destination, a sheltered cove with a paved landing, they slip effortlessly into the serene crowd; one of the organizers, an older woman with deep shining eyes, hands them candles and smiles softly as she guides them to the path marked with ropes of lights leading to the water's edge. Hikaru helps Gaila place her lantern over its candle without setting it afire, and they set their lanterns onto the water side by side. They step out of the way of the people behind them, and as they watch the lanterns drift towards the ocean, bobbing like a growing flock of floating stars, Hikaru brushes the back of his hand across Gaila's. She folds hers around his and his fingers tighten warmly as they watch the lantern lights carried by the smooth dark water, a glimmering fleet sailing quietly out to the endless sea.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Prompt 27 at the drabblefest:  
> 27\. She that was so proud and wild,  
> Flippant, arrogant and free,  
> She that had no need of me
> 
> I know the poem this is from, almost by heart. It reminds me of a friend whom I lost a differently painful way than death, but I also know it was written by the poet for a friend who died, and that's what my imagination seized upon.
> 
> This story includes a reference to my "Come Fly With Me", but more importantly refers to 's [Just Like A Waving Flag](http://igrockspock.livejournal.com/80166.html), a story of heartbreaking, haunting beauty. That's where Amaia's from.


End file.
